Thursday, December 23, 2004

Peak Oil Rant

As mentioned in the Desperado Days article below, the Bushies (if not aWol himself) probably know everything we know, and then some. They know that world oil production will peak, and they may even know when. The biggest difference is in what to do with this information. I basically endorse the Mike Ruppert plan, which involves letting everyone know what peak oil means and immediately making preparations for it--especially through massive conservation. The Bushies pretty clearly endorse a two-part plan--keep people from knowing what's happening while they invent excuse after excuse to start war after war to put a stranglehold on whatever oil production capacity is left in the world. Aside from its obvious immorality, which bothers them not at all, this plan has another big obstacle facing it--the Bushies aren't the only ones doing it.

Chinese leaders seem just as intent at grabbing up resources. Recently, they agreed to do joint military exercises with their long-time foe Russia, and are buying Russian weapons as well. Today, the NY Times has an article about how the Chinese are trying to make deals with Canada to buy up to one-third of Canadian oil exports. Canada, as I'm guessing you may not have known, is currently the number one foreign supplier of oil for the US (that top spot seems to jockey between Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia). From the article:

China's attempts to diversify its sources of oil have already led to several foreign exploration projects in places considered on the periphery of the global oil industry like Sudan, Peru and Syria.
...
"China's gone after the low-hanging fruit so far," said Gal Luft, a Washington-based authority on energy security issues who is writing a book on China's search for oil supplies around the world. "Now they're entering another level of ambition, in places such as Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada that are well within the American sphere."

I've read articles suggesting that the US-China war would happen around 2020. If peak oil happens soon and both countries continue to insist on their energy-intensive ways, that war could happen a lot sooner.